Method of fitting shoes



Dec. 28 1926;

F. H. PERRY METHOD OF FITTiNG SHOES 6 192] 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed Sept.

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Patented Dec. 28, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK H. PERRY, DECEASED, LATE F BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS; BY EDNA A. PERRY, EXECUTRIX, OF BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW" JERSEY.

METHOD OF FITTING SHOES.

Original application filed September 6. 1921. Serial No. 498.752. Divided and this application filed October 6, 1922. Serial No. 592865.

This invention relates to methods of preparing shoes for the incorporation of constituent parts, and is disclosed herein in connection with the heel scat fitting operation performed upon the soles of shoes prior to the attachment of certain kinds of heels. The present-application is a division of copending application Serial No. 498,752, filed Sept. 6, 1921.

Before attaching heels to shoes it is necessary in many instances to trim the soles about the heel-seats to fit the heels. This operation, which is commonly called heel seat fitting, is of particular importance when wood heels are to be attached. Until recently this operation has been performed entirely by hand, a workman placing a loose heel on a shoe and marking on the sole of the shoe the position of the breast line of The heel is then removed and the sole trimmed rearwardly of the mark so made, to remove the waste stock. United States Letters Patent No. 1,307 ,285, granted June 17, 1919, on application of S. J. -Wentworth and F. H. Perry, shows a poweroperated machine developed for performing this trimming operation. The patented machine operates by supporting the edge of the heel seat portion of the sole, depressing the center of the sole, and cutting off the upwardly-projecting waste portion.

It is an'object of the present invention to insure uniform and accurate fitting, equal to or better than that done by a skilled hand worker, without sacrificing the speed of machine operation and in a manner which will permit inexperienced or unskilled workers to produce satisfactory work. As herein disclosed, the method of the present invention may be-characterized by the measurement of the length of the heel seat surface of an unattached heel, such as that subse quently to be attached to the shoe, and the controlling by the act of measurement of the relative positions of a shoe and the path of movement of heel seat trimming means to form a heel seat of a length corresponding to that of the heel. As illustrated herein, the .heel seat is formed upon the sole of a shoe which is held in a stationary position in a machine of the general type shown in the above-identified patent, though obviously it ltl might be formed in a machine of other characteristics, and theheel is measured while it is spaced from the shoe to avoid obstructing the shoe during the removal of the superfluous stock. As shown, only a portion of the actual movement of the knife is oper ative to treat the shoe and the division between the operative and inoperative mo-vements is controlled by the gaging OffllllQ heel. lVhile the invention is disclosed herein in connection with heel seat fitting, it should be noted thatin various of its aspects it is not necessarily limited thereto.

lVith the above and other objects in View, the invention will be explained with reference to the operation of a machine such as that of the above-identified parent application, such a machine being shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a heel seat fitting machine;

Fig. 2 is a perspective of the principal parts of the machine;

Fig. 3 is a top plan View of the heel support, the gage, and the sole supporting plates; and

Fig. 4 is a perspective of the counterengaging member which determines the po- 5: sition of the shoes.

The illustrated machine comprises a drive shaft 10 rotated one revolution at a time by belt 12 acting through a one-revolution clutch controlled by a suitable treadle. Cams 'on shaft 10 operate the various parts oi": the machine according to a predetermined cycle. A lasted shoe is presented to the machine on a support 14 (or a shoe off the last may be presented thereto on a support of the type shown in the above-identified patent). This support is clamped in operative position by a pawl 16, co-operating with a ratchet 18, and arranged to be released by pulling a hand-lever 20.

Plates 30 are spread apart against the re- 'sistance of spring 82, by depressing a suitable treadle when a shoe is presented to the machine, and when the treadle is released they are yieldingly pressed toward one another, into engagement with the rand crease of the shoe, and act to support the margin of the sole. These plates are pivoted on a slide or head 34, which carries a cam roll 36 operated by a spiral cam 38, turned by means of a handle 40 which is held in adiusted position by allowing a spring pin to seat in one of a series of holes 42.

The active position of support 14 is determined by engagement of the counter portion of a shoe thereon with a gage 31, shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 4. In the patented machine the corresponding gage is mounted directly on the slide corresponding to slide 34. For a purpose hereinafter explained, I have improved this construction by mounting counter gage 31 on asupplementary slide as shown in Fig. 4, arranged for adjustment longitudinally of slide 34 by turning two adjustin screws 33, one of which is shown in that figure.

The central portion of the heel seat of a sole supported by plates 30 is depressed by a matrix or presser roll 44. journaled in the forked end of a lever 46, and the waste marginal portion of the sole which remains above plates 30, is severed to form a U- shaped flap by a reciprocating knife 48 which follows closely after the forward motion of the matrix roll. The U-shaped flap so formed is cut oil at the breast line by reciprocating knives 50. The initial position of matrix roll 44 is adjusted simultaneously with plates 30 and gage 31, and during the cycle of the machine the roll is picked up by the mechanism for reciprocating knife 48. and carried forward from this variable ini tial position to a uniform forward position such that knife 48 cuts forwardly to the breast line, to co-operate with knives 50 in making angnlarly-related cuts which remove the waste marginal stock.

All of the foregoing parts. and the actuating mechanism therefor, may operate. and are illustrated as operating, substantially like the corresponding parts described in the above-identified patent, and no extended description is here deemed necessary. Certain of these parts, however, are illustrated as improved to adapt them for use in practicing the present invention, and the nature of these improvements is hereinafterdescribed in detail.

In order to provide for quickly setting slide 34, and therefore gage 31 and matrix roll 44, according to the particular heel for which a shoe is being fitted. a support 0 is provided on the frame of the machine, with an abutment 62 which may be in alinement with, and which is in any case in predetermined relation to the breast-line position determined by knives 50. To co-oper ate therewith, a gage or feeler 64 is mounted on slide 34 in alinement with or in other predetermined relation to the rear end of a shoe positioned bv gage 31. In styles in which the rear end of the counter is in alinement with the rear edge of the heel, feeler 64 and gage 31 will be set in substantial alinement. In all cases. the position of gage 31 is so adjusted that the breast line of a shoe positioned thereby will be in alinement with the breast line of a heel engaged by abutment 62.

By this arrangement, when a heel H is placed on support 60 in engagement with abutment 62 and gage 64 is moved against the opposite side of the heel by setting slide 34 by means of handle 40, and when a jacked shoe on support 14 is swung back as far as permitted by engagement of gage 31 with the counter of the shoe, the breast-line position resulting from the junction of the cuts made by knives 48 and 50 is automatically determined to fit the sole for the particular heel being used as a pattern. Thus each heel is made to serve as its own pattern and the corresponding shoe is trimmed to lit it.

Some difficulty has heretofore been experienced in trimming cheap shoes, in that the comparatively weak soles used therein tend to buckle under the forward push of knife 48 and roll 44. To offset this, teeth are provided on plates 30, to hold the soles against slipping, and teeth 72 are cut on the ends of roll 44, to force the roll to rotate at the angular speed determined by rolling engagement of the teeth with the soles. As the central work-engaging portion 74 of the roll is of materially greater diameter than toothed portions 72, the angular speed so determined is suiticient. to give the work-engaging portion 7 4 a peripheral speed in excess of what would give more rolling engagement with the work, thus wiping the work rearwardly and offsetting the tendency to buckle.

To insure rotation of roll 44 at the desired speed a pinion 7G is mounted on one end 0 thereof, its diameter being equal to portions 72. This pinion engages a rack 78 secured at one end to slide 34 and supported at the other end by a hanger 80 on arm 46.

-To co-operate with the roll 44 in holding a sole. knives 50 are brought into engagement with the sole during the forward movement of knife 50 and roll 44, Then the knives 50 are raised while roll 44 advances thereunder and withdraws. during the completion of the cuts made by knife 48. and finally knives 50 are again brought down to cut away the waste stock. (lam 82. which acts through lever 34, link 86, and slide 88, is suitably designed to provide this double reciprocation of knives 50.

A corresponding double reciprocation is given knife 48 and roll 44, so that knives 50 may remain in engagement with the sole as long as possible. knife 48 and roll 44 paus ing while knives 50 are raised out of the wav. Cam 90. operating through lever 92. link 94, and rack 96. is suitably designed to reciprocate the slide whichoperates knife 48 and matrix roll 44 in this manner.

In operation, a shoe is placed on support 60, handle-40 is turned until gage 64 engages the heel, support 14 is swung back as far as gage 31 permits and until plates 30 seat in the rand crease, and the one-revolution clutch is tripped, whereupon the shoe is trimmed to fit the heel on support As gage 64 is moved into engagement with a heel, gage 31 ismoved a corresponding amount so that when the shoe to be c erated on is brou ht into engagement therewith, the shoe'will be positioned with the line where the heel breast receiving-cut should be made inalinement with knives 50 and at the forward end of the path of movement of the trimming knife or cutter 48. Knife 48, it may be noted, moves through a path the v length of which is fixed and independent of the adjustment of gages 64 and 31 and is longer than the length of the longest heel seat to be trimmed. The shoe to be operated upon is positioned so that its heel seat lies in the. forward portion of the path of movement of knife 48 so that when knife 48 is recipro-' cated, it will be inoperative during the first part of its movement, that is until it reaches the rear end of the sole of the shoe but will be operative during the remainder of its movement, to trim the surplus stock from the heel seat of the sole of'a shoe. The extent of the operative portion of the path of movement of knife 48 is determined by the positionof gages 31 and 64. The position of gage '64 will, of course, be dependent upon the length of the heel in engagement with which gage 64 is positioned so that the length of the cut in the sole of the shoe made by knife 48 will be controlled by gaging from that heel.

While I have described my invention in connection with a machine of the type shown in the \Ventworth and Perry patent, it \is;

not my intention to limit its scope thereby, or otherwise than by'the terms of the appended claims.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. That improvement in methods of controlling the trimming of theheel end of an outsole to prepare the heel seat to receive its heel, which consists in determining the.

relation between the outsole and, the path of movement of the trimming instrumentality by engagement with the opposite end faces of a heel spaced a substantial distance from "he outsole.

2. That improvement in methods of controlling the o eration of heel seat fitting machines whic comprises utilizing an unattached heel, spaced a substantial distance from the sole of the shoe to be operated on, as a spacing member between relatively movable parts of a heel seat fitting machine to determine the relation of the shoe and the path of movement of the trimming means of the machine, and trimming the heel seat of the shoe while said relation is maintained.

3. That improvement in methods of controlling the trimming of the heel-seat of a sole to prepare the sole to receive a heel characterized by the utilization of a heel spaced at a substantial distance from the sole to control the extent of the trimming of the sole while the sole is held in a stationary position.

4. That improvement in methods of heelseat fitting which comprises positioning a heel such as is to be attached to a shoe in a predetern'iined position at a substantial dis tance from the heel-seat of the sole of the shoe, locating the shoe in a position relatively .to the path of movement of a cutter determined by a dimension of the heel and holding the shoe stationary in said position, and moving the cutter to trim surplus material from the heel-seat ot' the sole of the shoe while the shoe is thus positioned, thereby fitting the heel-seat of the shoe to receive said heel or one like it. I

5. That improvement in methods of heelseat fitting which comprises positioning a heel such as is to be attached to a shoe in a predetermined position relatively to but removed from the heel-seat of the sole of the shoe, trimming surplus material from the heel-seat of the shoe while the shoe is held stationary, and gaging the extent of said trimming from said heel.

6. That im )rovement in methods of heelseat litting'wiiich comprises causing relative movement of a cutter and a shoe, the heelseat of the ,sole of which is to be trimmed -for the reception of a heel, through a dis tance greater than the length of the heelseat to be trimmed, a portion of said relative movement bein operative to cause the cutter to trim surpfils stock from the heelseat of 'the sole of the shoe and a portion of said relative movement being inoperative by reason of the cutter being out of engagement with the shoe, and controlling the extent of the operative portion of said relative movement by gaging from a heel such as is to be attached to the shoe located in a predetermined position at a substantial distance from the heeLseat of the sole of the shoe,

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

Ewecutfiaz of the will EDNA A. PERRY, 

